International students and international education : recognising WES students' agency for educating citizens of a cosmopolitan society

This chapter posits that the aim of true internationalisation of higher education should be to develop a cosmopolitan attitude in local and international students by affording them a positive experience of globalisation. To achieve this objective, opportunities for engaging non-Western and World Englishes Speaking (WES) international students to share their intellectual capital and knowledge-producing abilities should be incorporated in the teaching and learning practices of higher education. A critique of literature detailing how WES students are perceived in Western higher education is presented. Insufficient focus has been placed on their agency as their capabilities as cosmopolitan citizens of the modern-day world have been ignored. Presenting findings from research undertaken at a metropolitan university in Australia which shows international students and academics demonstrating their cosmopolitanism as a commitment to the ethos of internationalisation of higher education, this chapter argues that educators and curriculum designers need to bring a cosmopolitan outlook to their respective work. Finally, a need for further research into the nature and application of the intellectual resources that international students bring with them for affecting a two-way intellectual dialogue is raised.